Since the fall of 2018, we've actually managed to have a large number of campaign setting books come out for D&D 5th Edition. From its launch in 2014, the only "campaign setting" book was Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide, which detailed aspects of what is generally considered the "default" setting for D&D - the Sword Coast region of Faerun, the main continent in the Forgotten Realms. The Sword Coast is home to familiar places like Waterdeep, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter, and Icewind Dale (three of which have rather popular computer games named after them) and so it made sense to provide some background on those locations for new players like myself, but for four years, that was it.
However, starting with the release of Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica, along with the sort of preview/partial release book Wayfinder's Guide to Eberron, WotC has gotten a lot more forthcoming with campaign setting books. Over the past two years, we've gotten Eberron: Rising From the Last War (a more thorough, and physical, book covering Eberron,) Mythic Odysseys of Theros, and Explorer's Guide to Wildemount. We also got Acquisitions Incorporated, which isn't truly a setting in its own right, as it takes place in the Forgotten Realms (though you could easily imagine Omin Dran is expanding to other worlds) but does bring in concepts that could make for a very different tone of campaign.
Of the published adventure books, most are set in the Forgotten Realms. Curse of Strahd, probably the best-received of them, is actually a full-on Ravenloft campaign, though its insular nature and the universality of Ravenloft makes it practically setting-agnostic (in the game I'm playing, half the party is from the Forgotten Realms and half is from the DM's homebrew world.) Ghosts of Saltmarsh is actually set in Greyhawk, though its small-scope stories can easily be placed elsewhere (that being said, there's a whole section on Saltmarsh itself that doesn't have anything to do with the individual adventures, so it's a bit of a back-door campaign setting book.) Then, Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus, while it starts in the Forgotten Realms, arguably becomes a Planescape adventure when you descend into the Nine Hells (I don't know - do we consider any visit to the Outer Planes a Planescape adventure? Or only if you go to the Outlands/Sigil?)
While I do still prefer to run things in my homebrew setting (though I do really enjoy Ravnica, after six months of this campaign I've gotten a very "grass is greener on the other side" feeling now. I miss wilderness!) I do really love reading about new and different settings (and the various mechanics, monsters, and other features that come with them!)
According to this article (I can't find a VOD of the panel myself,) WotC has confirmed that they'll be publishing a lot more campaign setting books. While we haven't gotten any specifics on which ones, we know that there will be "classics" that people have been asking for for a long time.
So let's review D&D settings, and consider their likelihood of showing up.
Now, there are actually a lot of settings that have come out over the years, so I'm going to take a somewhat biased approach and base this a bit on how much I, as something of a neophyte (albeit a zealous one,) know about the settings and their popularity. I'm going to be skipping some of the obscure ones like Beta World or Birthright, which I know basically nothing about. I'm going to describe first whether I want it, and then whether I think it's a likely candidate for a release.
Ravenloft:
Let's get this one out of the way first. I think this is likely to be the first of these setting books to come out next. I base this almost entirely on the Unearthed Arcana for the Undead Warlock Patron and the College of Spirits for Bards, which both have that gothic vibe that would fit perfectly in the Ravenloft setting. Also, the popularity of Curse of Strahd must also mean that more tools to build new Ravenloft adventures would probably sell well. I, for one, would jump at the chance for more monsters and details on the Ravenloft setting (as well as those sweet subclasses,) and I bet a lot of other people would as well. So I place this likelihood very high, maybe a 90% (I'm not going to do a percentage for every setting.)
Greyhawk:
Greyhawk I think is generally described as a grittier type of setting - like the Forgotten Realms, it's something of a fantasy kitchen sink, but while the Forgotten Realms generally expects players to be heroic, Greyhawk is more of the "heroic fantasy" that ironically is less about heroism than self-interest. I'll be honest here, that doesn't really inspire me, personally. Now, Greyhawk does have the important legacy of being the original D&D setting, created by Gary Gygax himself, and I'm sure that some old-school players (and maybe some newer ones as well) would be excited for a book here, but I also think there's probably a reason the Forgotten Realms has displaced Greyhawk as the game's default setting. So while I think this is a possible option, I'm not really gunning for it.
Dragonlance:
I know very little about this setting, other than that, like FR and Greyhawk, I understand it to be another fantasy kitchen sink setting. Just from the name, it strikes me as possibly more "classical fantasy" in style, with a bit more of an emphasis on medieval/Arthurian imagery, though that is, again, purely something I'm getting from the name and could be totally false. Still, given that we have Forgotten Realms, I don't really think we need another "it's, you know, a fantasy world" kind of setting, though like Greyhawk, it does have the advantage of nostalgia.
Dark Sun:
Ok, here's where things get a bit more interesting. Dark Sun, which blends influences like Dune, Conan the Barbarian, and maybe a taste of Mad Max, starts getting into the "weird" sort of D&D setting. It's also a harsh one, and the limitations on magic and even metal weapons and armor could make things feel very different here. Like Greyhawk, you've got the sort of self-interested cynicism, but in a world that looks profoundly different from the Forgotten Realms - a harsh, sun-blasted desert. Couple that with the Psionic options likely coming in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, and the fact that this was, I believe, a popular setting in the 90s (the two settings I heard of after Forgotten Realms, long before I started playing, were Dark Sun and Ravenloft,) and I think this could be a candidate.
Planescape:
Probably the weirdest of the settings (though see Spelljammer, next,) Planescape is built around running an entire campaign set in the Outer Planes. With the excellent potential to set things in surreal landscapes, including the famous city of Sigil and the 17th Outer Plane known as the Outlands introduced in this setting (the True Neutral plane, of which Sigil is sort of but also sort of not a part,) this is one of my personal favorites - I actually bought an old 2nd Edition book as pdf from DM's Guild here to read up on it, and there's a lot of potential. Given that the Outer Planes described in the Great Wheel cosmology are mostly universal to D&D (though Magic worlds are obvious exceptions and Eberron has its own planar cosmology that I think officially sits in a bubble in the Ethereal Plane) you could argue that this is just as default as Forgotten Realms. But I also think the outer planes are some of the coolest elements of official D&D settings, and I'd love to have more details on how to actually run adventures that take you around them (I mean, what does a dungeon look like in Bytopia?) This is one of the setting books I'd most want, so I'm just crossing my fingers it's coming.
Spelljammer:
It's practically become a meme at this point for people to demand that we get a Spelljammer book. And if you ask me, I'd be super into it. I love mixing sci-fi and fantasy (I mean, I grew up on Star Wars, didn't you?) and on top of that, this is one of those "settings" that allows you to visit practically all the other ones. On the other hand, the original release of Spelljammer was fairly unpopular (though how much of that was just the name?) though I also wonder if the broader audience D&D has today would be more accepting of a unapologetically silly setting. I'm not going to hold my breath for this one, but I'd be very happy if it happened.
Nentir Vale:
Um... this was the official setting for 4th Edition, I think, and I know nothing whatsoever about it. 4E was pretty unpopular, and... yeah, no.
So, those are the settings I imagine are in contention. If all three of the new books are going to be classic ones, that means any one of these stands a good chance of coming out.
I'll confess that while I really want to see the more surreal, otherworldly settings, I imagine there will be some desire for balance between grounded and high fantasy. So while I'd say give us Ravenloft, Planescape, and Spelljammer, I think we're more likely to lose one or two of those and get Greyhawk, Dragonlance, or Dark Sun - the latter of which is my preferred option.
I am still pretty confident about Ravenloft, which is, frankly, the one of these I want most.
I've been a bit of a completionist for 5th Edition content - I think the only official book I don't have is Dungeon of the Mad Mage, so whatever they come out with, I'm sure I'll get it. But I'm very eager to find out what does come out.
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